Author
Topic: Edgers (Read 6485 times)

I've been thinking about getting an edger. Here in NC they make the Miner edger for about the same price as you can get a Cook's or Tk. I think the portable ones might have a better resale. Also the guy at Miner said the belt edger is what he called a finishing edger, his is a roller edger. I never hear anyone use that in an edger. Any ideas what he used that term for? Does anyone know of a used one for sale near NC?

I tried commenting on this thread when it started but for some reason the forum kept pulling error codes. I have a Cook's AE4P edger. It cuts the edges off of a flitch. How many rainbows you get in a day, well, that's inevitable. Tracking those belts is about impossible. One minute they're one way, the next they're the other. When both belts are tracking oppositely is when you get the rainbows. Mine has also had trouble with feeding the lumber. It will go in and get stuck for some reason. I think it's because the pillow block bearing that holds the blade to the shaft sticks up higher than the table, so it hits that and binds. Cook's builds things like a bunch of Bubbas. I knew this going into it. But, I don't regret buying the edger. I wish that WM had bigger capacities on theirs. The Cook's had the biggest capacities, and it's still not enough at times. Oh, and that angle iron sight line, yea, that don't line up with the blade at all, and it's NOT ADJUSTABLE. Some Einstein really engineered that one well. I like it and all but don't be expecting accuracy. I've had it for a few weeks now and have put close to 30 hours on it. I don't run it when the sawmill is running as I work by myself. I have an outfeed table and next to it is some 6' long sawhorses (4x4's setting on spruce stumps). I pile all my flitches on that and at the end of the day I run the edger. It is a huge gain in production and you can get higher yields too cutting grade lumber. I would not want to go back to being edger less. Now I get people who want to do portable jobs and I have a much higher setup charge because it's a pita to take down my workflow setup, and also I sure as heck ain't leaving that edger at home. I looked hard at the Thomas Bandmills edger. It looked great, but, at the end of the day, I wasn't sure it would hold up to daily abuse. It may have, it also may not have. They are kind of a hobby mill company so I wouldn't think it would. One thing about Cook's, they build their equipment like a locomotive. It is tough. You could drop a tree on it and it would be fine. It is rough around the edges, but, with a lot of tinkering, it has potential.

I think it's because I bought it used and the guy before me had the belts so tight, they wouldn't track properly and it ripped the stitching out of one. Now the stitching is all cockeyed and makes them hard to track. I ground that pillow block bearing down the other day and it's not binding because of that anymore. The belts were broke in wrong, which I think caused alot of my problems. I think it's a great edger, and I don't regret buying it, but its a lot of $ for something that isn't turn key and go. Even though I got it for a hell of a deal.

I have a Cook's Sharpner, Dual Tooth Setter, Single Tooth Setter, and the AE4P edger. I have worked on a guy's old AC-36 and watched a brand new AC-36 running. I know all about Cook's "Quality" Equipment. They get it 80% there, and then the end user gets to finish it the rest of the way. From the paint to the engineering, Bubba done built it, and to fix it, you gotta think like a Bubba. They should change the name of their company to "Bubba Built".

Don't get me wrong, I do like their products, that's why I have so much red in my shed, but you gotta know going into it, okay, I'm gonna have to do some engineering.

It's not just the belts on the edgers, there was a multitude of things that need tweaking, but, the belts are a constant battle. Some people say the rollers for the belts need more crown, and other people say that they should have no crown. But whatever they did with them rollers, it's not right lol.

If you get the Perkins diesel engine, make sure to turn the idle up to 1450rpms. They send it out of the factory at ~900rpms, and it will rattle itself to death. That Perkins engine is meant to turn high R's at idle. The weld on the belt shied was busted when I took delivery of the machine, the guy before me didn't know to turn the idle up. I've heard people who have busted the radiator on the thing because of the idle being too high. I went and looked at a new one a guy local had just got with 8hrs on it, and the thing couldn't cut a straight board. It'd cut a rainbow all day long. And it's all in those belts. If one is tracking to the left and the far one is tracking to the right, you're gonna get a rainbow. I've gotten the belts tracking much better since I first got it at least, but it will still sneak a rainbow here and there.

Any of us can be brutally honest about any company and we really don't need to bash any company or should we. I don't see him being brutally honest about his sawmill . Also in all these years I don't think I've heard one complaint about Cooks either online or from people I know that run them. Calling Cooks Bubbas is really low and he should apologize to them . Steve

His perspective is what it is and considering he uses the product and even says he likes it, I don't believe that an apology is necessary. Bubba has different meanings to different people depending on where you're at in the country and I doubt anyone at Cooks is going to be offended and even if they were, I will not trample a persons 1st Amendment right to their opinion, even if I don't agree with it.

Not being form the south and with all the discussion I had to look it up to see what and where it really came from instead of my opinion on it.

I always thought it meant "Good Ole Boy"

Thanks for making me educate myself a little today guys.

By the way I think Cook's makes great equipment.

Doug: you can't bad mouth a used piece of equipment that may not have been treated well or even tweaked unintentionally or intentionally, just not to your liking. Your edger belts maybe the result of mal-treatment.

BUBBAA sweet nick name certain people give to someone they consider a bro/sister, like a best friend sorta thing. ******************Bubba is a southern derivation on the word "Brother" Have you found your bubba® yet?

*******************

Whether at work, driving down the open road, hitting the gym, hanging out with family, or tailgating with friends, rest easy, because with bubba by your side, you’ve got a companion for life.

********************

noun, plural bubbas.1. Chiefly Southern U.S. brother (usually used as an affectionate term of address).2. Slang: Usually Disparaging and Offensive. a term used to refer to an uneducated Southern white male.

***************************

bubbanoun Brother, Not uncommon as a nickname : Here comes big Bubba Jones (1860s+ Southern) also a person of simple Southern rural culture; cracker, GOOD OLD BOY ?Occurrence increased enormously during the early years of the Clinton administration : People watching ''Jeopardy!'' aren't just bubbas out there/ He doesn't have your typical ''Bubba'' approach to state government (1980s+)

« Last Edit: September 11, 2016, 06:33:10 PM by furu »

Logged

Integrity is not just doing the right thing.Integrity is not just doing the right thing when no one is looking.Integrity is doing the right thing when no one else will ever even know.

Maybe being the only one from the south on this topic, around here if he's a bubba we think of a big awkward guy. Not a bad guy, just one you might call to help if you got into a fight.Now you guys from the north figure it out.

I don't like to get involved with the drama..but.. Steve/ladylake/oliverm5sc: and you're one to talk about brand bashing? The first person to point a finger...apologize for what? I ain't Canadian! Thanks for the laugh.

"Bubba" isn't a bad thing...Bubba just ain't so technologically advanced...Bubba means well, and is doing the best he can.

Now, the fact of matter is, I have plenty of red equipment, to speak honestly, from experience, about the quality of equipment. In my mind, the whole entire point of a forum, is to let the truth be known. We are here to help each other, not kiss the companies butts. If we want better equipment, we can use these valuable forums, made available to us by good people, to let our voice be heard. If all we ever do is bow down and try to get sales for the color of equipment we own, all we're doing is stepping on our own feet, letting the MFG. get away with building cheaper, crappier products. If we hold the MFG's to higher standards online, and their sales drop when they start letting lesser quality products go out the door in turn for more production, that is how we will get them to see the light, faster. Some sites can be bought out, but not this one. Back in the day, the mfgs might have been able to get away with it longer, because nobody could research very much on something they want to buy. Nowadays, people like Ricky can get online and post a question, and get real, honest opinions. And that's just what I've offered, my own opinion, you don't have to listen to it, hell, pour some salt on it, take it how you want it. I'm just offering up my experiences, to help the next guy, and let the truth be known. Welcome to 2016.

Maybe being the only one from the south on this topic, around here if he's a bubba we think of a big awkward guy. Not a bad guy, just one you might call to help if you got into a fight.Now you guys from the north figure it out.

One thing I learned from a honest Bubba opinion is that belts on a Cooks edger don't track good when they are ripped some even though that didn't come out on the first post, just downgrade Cooks. Steve

I ran a minor edger for a while.... It is my choice for an edger... Besides the belt tracking issue with the Cook's what I don't like about mine is the motor and the board return share the same space...one is in the wrong location.... Not going down the Bubba path... Nevertheless if you buy Cook's get a good set of Allen wrenches as their engineers like to use slip collar's on everything... Even places slip collar's should not be.... I have the full Cook's AC-36 mill, edger, sharpening equipment package and Tim Cook refuses my phone calls and will not sell me part's... So I rate their customer service at zero....and I continue to make sawdust

That's not good news on Cook's. Must really not like you at all but still should sell you parts. For now I've put off getting a new edger, still look for a used one if one comes up. I just decided on buying a slabber mill from Turbosaw. It should be here later in January. Got to have a bit of time between buying two machine.

Are there any Yankee Bubbas.? I'am staying out of this fray. Have any of you built your own edger seems like a doable project especially for someone that has worked with them and could make improvements. Frank C.

wasn't bubba the bib overall wearing hillbilly from deliverance? around these parts "bubba" ain't a term used in good light the best part of this forum is being allowed to give honest assesments of equipment , companies ect. i never give a false opinion about a product good or bad. god knows i own plenty of junk that was given bullshit reviews.

For what it's worth, I'm with Frank (bandmiller2). There just isn't much to an edger. You need a 1 1/2" shaft keyed . You need 2 collars that bolt to 14" blades and one has a keyway and tightened to the shaft at a pre determined location for the fixed blade and the other has been reamed in the bole slightlyso it slides on the shaft and the key lightly filed where it run the keyway and is tack welded to one end of the collar so it runs with the blade along the shaft.

A couple short pieces of 4" channel for the main frame and a couple of 4" (cut to fit in the "C", for whatever length you want for the table.

Poboy edger, feed rollers bolted to the top of a table saw. Your right Hal, I'll probably never build one. I'am seldom in a true production mode and just edge on the mill. Circular mill is the easiest, gravity is a great helper. Bandmill when the cant gets down to 4" I stack agenst it and trim a bundle. Frank C.

Awhile back I bought new belts for it, and new blades. Got them tracking good. Found that the belts it came with were cut so far out of square that the guy who cut it must have been using a speed square and marked the 45 degree side on accident. Edger was working..then we got to a wet day and I was told that after about 3 cuts, the belt tracking just took off, and it ate up the side of the new belt. I am not sure if it really took off as fast as the guy running it claimed it did, he misses the small things, see, so I think half of it was his fault and the other half the fact that there's not enough crown on the wheels for it to track properly. You get any bit of sawdust packed down in there and you have to stop and clean it or else the belt is off in la-la land.

Another pet peeve of mine is that the press down rollers have these bearings mounted backwards. They have it so that the bearing shoulder mount dooey is right directly in the way of a board when you run a wide board through. It will stop the board dead in its tracks. The pointer that they use to show what width the blades are at is pathetic. It's a piece of wire bolted to a piece of steel bolted to the chain. My clumsy worker bumps it all the dang time and knocks it around so much we have to shut the edger off and reset the indicator, as well as every time we take the tarp off in the morning.

They also put the emergency shut offs in bad spots we hit them all the time during regular use and have to fire it back up again (hopefully remembering to put it back to idle first). One top of that, they plumbed the wire for it so that any wide flitch that is coming through the edger will hit it and can rip that thing right off. The fuel can is a red gas can with a "Diesel Only" sticker on it, I thought that was funny. The idle is set from the factory too low, 900rpms, and it rattles like hell until you put it to what Perkins specifies (1450rpm idle). The guy who owned it before me didn't know this and it broke a weld on the shield before he had 50 hrs on it. The sight line to eye up the cut is not adjustable and if you have anything thicker than 2" don't work very well because it's only 2" from the table so you have to lift it out of the way and then put it back on the piece once it's there and then it's not as accurate even though it wasn't to begin with. The fence seems to be out of line and pushes the board as it leaves. The oil dipstick was on the wrong side, the fuel line had to be rerouted to change the fuel filter, the paint falls off if you breath on it too close, the handle to adjust the blades falls off no matter how tight you make it, and it's bulky and catches your clothing. On top of that, the thing is the most expensive edger in it's class on the market. And a big reason they sell them and their crappy dual tooth setters is because they bought out some other internet site so the people can only read rave reviews about it, say one thing bad and like our friend above me they're cut right off. If the companies were hung out to dry then they'd be more apt to have a better product. I don't hate the thing, it cuts edges off flitches, like I bought it for. We use it. I don't really run it much any more, my guy does. I let him enjoy the headaches that ensue. They paint them red to match the color of your face when you're running it. This is my consumer report, my opinion, everyone can have one, take it for what it's worth.

i had to go back and re read your first post,it sure sounded like you we're describing a timberking edger but, i guess there are a couple of companies making junk ...excuse me i mean lesser quality equipment.

Its a wonder to me that the danged edgers work at all. You line up the board that may or may not be flat more than likely tapered and expect it to feed straight and true the whole length, without wasting edges or turning corners. I don't mill enough to make one practical. Frank C.

Well, lately I've been feeding the edger large slabs up to 4" thick, hardwood. It is taking a whooping, only broken a few welds, and the cable that goes to the emergency shut off switch on the lid, but other than that, I am growing fond of this edger. I like the simplicity of the Cook's machine. If it don't work, hit it harder with a hammer and it will work. I like that they put a Murphy switch on it. I like to just feed the snot out of it and listen to that little perkins beller. I still don't like the conveyors, as the way each of them are tracking at the time determines whether you will get straight boards, or rainbow boards, but I've just gotten past the point of caring really. Everyone seems to be ok with the lumber. Plus if you stack all the boards with the rainbow going the same way you can't hardly tell lol. I am going to be putting a third blade on at some point for other stuff and when I do that I'm gonna see if I can't get the mandrel lined up better to where we're cutting straight boards more of the time. I found that if I have the infeed belt tracking to the passenger side the boards come out straight. For turning slabs into 3 sided cants, it works pretty decent and it don't matter if they're straight anyways cause when we cut them to length they'll become straight enough for the girls I go with lol

Honest opinions and honest reviews, both good and bad. It's a thing of beauty.

Regarding opinions on machinery: Has anyone, ever, had a piece of machinery that they didn't like something about? I honestly can't say I've ever run a perfect tractor, rig, truck, car, chainsaw, sawmill, edger, gun, lawnmower, anything at all, ever, in my life. There's just always something that ain't quite right. Now, I've almost come close once when my ex employer, a trucking company, bought a bunch of brand new Freightliners but even then - some would have a rattle where others didn't, some would have a little leak for the intercooler on the turbo and not pull a hill as good as the others, some had the air ride seat sink down after a few minutes, a couple had the passenger mirror control not work. These brand new trucks ran the gamut of things that weren't right. About 15 trucks if I remember right. Crazy, right? Maybe that's why they're commonly known as "Freightshakers"...

An old farmer once told me: if it's got tires, tits or a transom you're gonna have a problem one day. Probably some of the best advice I've ever had. Love them old timers, the most of them.

That's right, nothing is perfect. When I got my TK mills it had a couple of problems that some would have pissed and moaned about and never fixed. I just fixed them better than factory and my mill has been real reliable for over 13000 hours now. Every once in a while something will go bad, mostly electrical but not too often. Steve

That used to be one of my favorite things to do - fixing something a manufacturer made and sold and making it better than it ever was from the factory. Little things like bigger solenoids or mounting a second battery or replacing steel lines with copper nickel which will never rust, etc...

As far as I can see, there's two types of fellas - those who fix before it's broken because they see it coming and don't want a pain in the ass at an inopportune time and those who wait for things to break for various reasons that I'll never understand cause I'm the first one if money allows.